Through The Roots

Brady O’Rear is one of my homeboys from Hilo. We used to play basketball against each other back in the Parks and Recreation and high school days. His dad, Bill O’Rear, once described me as Pete Maravich for my long hair at the time in The Hawaii Tribune-Herald. Fast-forward to 2011, the guy’s a keyboardist, he soon will be touring with heavy reggae acts, Iration and The Green with his band from San Diego, Through the Roots, and he’s the one sporting some extra Pete Maravich.

Through the Roots just got back to San Diego from doing a couple shows in Hawai‘i. I was bumming on the time confliction because I was in San Francisco. They did a show at Tropics with Pressure Drop, one at The Shack Waikiki with the Green, and last but definitely not least, one in his hometown, Hilo, with Dirty Roots and SOJA.

“That was a pretty interesting day for me. I felt even more at home being on stage in front all my friends and family; I was excited all day leading up to when we played, so when I finally got on stage I was relieved and happy,” Brady says of the concert day with SOJA.

“We just want to put out that feel good music; music that you can listen to anytime of the day and just relax and enjoy it. We hope that one day we can take our music worldwide and just give everyone the best show possible. Whether it's in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Hawai‘i or Puna, we want to see people out there jamming out hard and enjoying themselves at our shows.”

Through the Roots are finishing up some studio time for their EP, which should come out some time in March, and rehearsing for their upcoming shows with Iration and The Green. “So stoked The Irators invited us back for another bunch of shows. Those guys are my favorite band both as musicians and people; always down to jam with them wherever they go, they always kill it.” Two days after their tour with Iration, they’ll meet up with The Green in Portland, playing shows there, Seattle, Vancouver B.C., then hitting up the West and Midwest states.

It’s always nice to see friends doing big things and progressing in their lives. And if it weren’t for Craigslist, Brady would never have been a member of Through the Roots, saying that it was “kinda random” how he joined the band. But he can thank Bradah Craig later; dreams are to be fulfilled first. Keep up the good work, Brady. Check Through the Roots out at www.myspace.com/throughtheroots.